Ace of Hearts
by GargoyleSama
Summary: BTVS Post ChosenDr WhoDuring a wekend off in London, Xander meets someone that is definantly not your normal maiden in distress.  XA
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the BTVS characters or environs. I don't own the Doctor Who characters or environs. This is not for profit. If anyone profits from this then the Daleks will eradicate you as the Slayers… well, slay you.

-

Alexander Lavelle Harris sighed as he turned the corner. Take the weekend off and relax. That is all that he had heard for the past week. Being the Director of Operations for the Reformed International Council of Watchers was something he took very seriously. When he started up in the position he accepted the caveat that his friends and colleagues forced on him. He would take a weekend off a month. For the past five months that wasn't an option. There was too much going on the weekends that he was scheduled off, and he wouldn't take anyone else's weekend.

That left him going out this weekend. He had hopped the train to London. From the support staff that they had at headquarters he had heard that it was the best place for him to go. With his accent and dangerous look that the patch and the way he carried himself, he was sure to meet someone to take care of the 'grumpies' as Willow had named them. He was given directions to a pub from the concierge at the hotel. On his way he heard a scuffle, and being the white knight that he was he tried to step in.

One look at the struggle and he knew what was going on. There were four large men attacking a smaller woman. He noticed a few things on his internal check list. The men had fangs. The faces of said men were distorted, though not in the normal way. One had blood dripping from his mouth. That was good enough for him. He slipped a stake from his jacket and moved in while hitting his GPS beacon. The beacon would alert Slayer Central to his location and the closest team would be dispatched. Though knowing the over-protectiveness of his friends, there would probably be a full rapid response squad at his location within five minutes.

The rapid response teams were his initial idea. Set squads of people that were ready to go anywhere into any situation at a moments notice, they were composed of Slayer, magick support, and conventional agents and could, through use of a teleportation gate, be dropped anywhere that the council needed them. Of course the original scenario that he had conceived was someone trying to overwhelm a solo slayer, or even worse, one of the non active slayers, and the scenario that kept coming to his mind were the younglings. The preteen slayers that were called from Willow's spell were first and foremost in his mind for protection. They hadn't had to use a rapid response team until now, and of course, it would be him that would have to summon them in.

Driving the closest vamp into one of its companions with a shoulder block, Xander spun and caught the one closes to the woman through the back, and into the heart. He spun the abomination around and shoved him towards his colleagues. Using the distraction to grab the woman's hand he pulled her away from the wall and ushered her out of the alley. He was hoping these vamps were fledglings and not smart enough to follow them quickly or track them. He knew he couldn't be that lucky. It was the Harris Family Luck after all.

They had made it two alleys away when he hazard a look and they were now visibly on their trail, the street eerily empty at this time of night. They made another alley and turned as they neared the corner when he looked back again and realized that the one he had staked was still coalesced and not drifting on the wind.

"This is bad," he muttered to himself.

He didn't hear the expected response of the woman, but felt a pull on his arm while she yelled, "This way!"

They had entered another alley, but Xander thought that this must be a short cut that she knew, being from here. That was until they came to a dead end. There were no doors, and no fire escapes. The only thing in this alley besides debris was an old police box that had been discontinued years before. She was fumbling with keys, and just as Xander was about to grab her to get out of the deathtrap the gruesome foursome less one from a few moments before entered the alley's entrance.

Xander was steeling himself for a delaying action until help honed in on his beacon when he felt himself being pulled from the back and side into the police box. As he passed the threshold he just hoped that she thought of this as enough of a home to keep the vamps out. That and if the occasional glance that he allowed himself of the woman and her looks held true in the confined space of the police box.

Xander had experienced many shocks in his life. Buffy dying and him resuscitating her, Buffy killing Deadboy and him coming back, taking down a newly formed demon lord on his graduation day… he wasn't sure if taking down the former Mayor Wilkins, or actually graduating, dating a former vengeance demon was a day to day wonder, Buffy dying and being resurrected, standing up to his best friend in the world as she channeled apocalyptic energy into his body, not to mention taking on the first evil and an army of caveman vampires. None of this prepared him for this.

The inside of the police box opened up to a science fiction fans dream. A mixture of high tech and low tech accumulated in the center of the room and multiple doorways lined the far wall. "Sorry to drag you into all of this… I am sorry, I don't know your name," she started.

"My name's Xander," he answered, starting to focus on her, taking in her looks. About Willows height with light brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. Her body was curvy in all the right ways, but you could tell under her bulky jacket that she was fit. Her eyes sparkled with untold secrets, and her smile had a knowing smirk.

"Well, Xander, sorry to drag you into all of this, I know you have a lot of questions, but you will probably forget all about this when it is done."

"Probably not, I have spent a long time remembering things that other people sweep under the rug. Usually in this type of situation I am the one explaining about the vampires… I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."

"My name is Ace, and those were Haemovores, not vampires. The stake should have taken that one out. You must have just missed the heart. Not sure what we are going to do for the moment. They won't give up until they are taken down."

"Not to worry about that. As I moved into that alley I put in a call to some people I know. They will take them down nice a good."

Ace moved around the central console and started to flip switches. A display from outside the police box came up and they saw the three remaining Haemovores turn to the left as if they heard something. They then dropped to the ground after staggering. Two girls came upon them quickly and with a flash of wood in their hands, they stood up just as quickly. They were obviously looking around and at the three forms on the ground.

"Those would be my girls. I probably should go outside… They might get into some type of trouble if they go looking for it, or me… or anything… it tends to follow those two around," Xander chuckled.

Ace chuckled a little also, "I think I know what you mean. I have been around someone like that."

"Been around them, or been them?"

Ace winked as she punched him on the arm. "Maybe both," she answered as they walked out of the door and into the alley.


	2. The First Draw

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1…

-

Xander and Ace stepped out of the police box, and over the three dead Haemovores. The two Slayers were on full guard and turned to them as the entered the alleyway. Xander waved them down as he held his hand out to help steady Ace, which got him a shy smile from the woman. Vi and Rona smirked at each other and then at Xander.

Xander's face went from one normalcy, to his business face. At which point Vi's and Rona's smirks disappeared. "I try to take a weekend off and this happens. Things like this are why I don't take too much time off, right, ladies?"

The two Slayers nodded and sighed. "Furthermore we have four vampiric entities that are not vampires as we know them. I want the scenes cleaned up and I want a full report about them on my desk Monday morning. I want both of your after action reports filled out filed and ready with the reports on my desk." Xander glanced up at the other two with the Slayers. He smiled, "Duggan, I know I don't have to worry about you getting your report to me," he said to the black clad operative. "Alaisdaire, if yours isn't the bottom one on my desk, I WILL make sure you are signed up for hand to hand combat lessons," he said as he grinned an evil grin to the mage in the leather long rider.

"Clean up is already in route, Director Harris, and I will make sure all reports are ready for perusal at your leisure," spoke the man that Xander had called Duggan.

Xander nodded and turned to Ace. "I was going to go to a pub, get a drink, and find someone interesting to talk to. If you would like to come with me, then the last thing would already be handled." His head turned a little to the side and smiled a hopeful, yet goofy smile.

He was greeted with a sardonic half smile. "You're buying, right?"

"Well, since this is an after situation talk, I am going to expense it."

A truly wicked smile crossed her lips, "You don't know what you just said."

He grinned and held out his arm for her, "Oh, I do believe I do. Shall we away?"

Ace took his arm and they left the alley, leaving the team from the Council to clean things up.

-

"You burned down a house?" Xander asked incredulously. Ace shushed him down in the crowded pub. "That's nothing, senior graduation we had to blow up the school to take out the mayor that had ascended to a demon lord status," Xander countered in a stage whisper.

"Wicked!"

"Nah, just plain evil, but the type of evil that is dangerous, the type of evil that people will follow because until it gets to the end, it looks like it is going to help others out… That is the type of evil that will suck people in that are looking for meaning in their life." Xander got a far away look in his eye before he shook his head and finished off his pint. Xander saw a gleam in Ace's eyes and smiled back at it. "So, what about scars, we've been talking for a long while about fights and battles, you have to have scars. I'll show you mine… I got some doozeys."

"Mm, I bet you do have a doozey. But, I don't scar, or well, I do, but I've got this regenerator that puts everything back right," said Ace getting more animated. "No scars or anything. If I can get someone fast enough it can even reattach limbs, or even re-grow…" she suddenly got quiet. "Sorry, sometimes I let the coolness of the tech get in the way of… You must think that I am a bloody wanker," Ace said dejectedly.

"S'alright, I've gotten used to it. Didn't know you then, but I wouldn't mind getting your number in case something like this happens to someone else."

"Well, I'll give you my number, but I am hard to reach sometimes."

"Yeah, that also is contingent if I let you out of my sight."

"So, you think I'm going to let you stay around me?"

"Hope so," mumbled Xander as he leaned in, pressing his lips to hers.

-

Xander moaned softly as he twisted in the silken sheets. 'Silk sheets?' his mind asked. 'The hotel didn't have silk sheets. Xander, my boy, what have you gotten us into THIS time?' Xander groaned at his mind for talking so loud.

One may wonder how Xander knows what silk sheets feel like. Not satin sheets, which can be purchased at a large chain outlet that ends in Mart. No, these were true silk sheets. Anya had a set that she fully enjoyed from time to time. Well, enjoyed them as she enjoyed Xander. At the happy memories in the back of his mind made themselves known, Mister Happy did also.

Xander growled again as he tried to will his eyelids up and when nothing happened he sighed and tried again, this time for real, and nothing happened again. He started to let out a scream when he felt a soft hand on his cheek.

"Shush, what's the matter?" an equally as soft voice lilted to his ears.

"Can't see, my other eyes is blind…"

Then light came into his world as his eye patch was slid from his right eye to his left. In his vision, as it cleared, was Ace, a terry cloth robe covering her body as she gazed down at him. She lowered her head to his chest and sighed contently. "Coffee should be ready in a few minutes."

Xander could feel her nails on his skin softly scratching him like a cat would do. Xander stopped trying to fight it and wrapped his arms around her and held her tight as a tear escaped his eye.


	3. One Eyed Jack

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: Sorry that the end of the last chapter was rushed. I was trying to get it finished and was going for a bit of a cliffhanger, an emotional one at that. I will attempt to make amends with this chapter.

-

Ace leaned against the wall and looked at Xander while he was tentatively dressing. She took a sip of her coffee and kept the mug there longer to hide her face from him. She knew what was wrong, what was broken. She just wasn't sure how to help fix it. She could feel Xander look at her while he was getting dressed. She knew he could tell she was thinking about him. She just didn't know how to get everything done that she needed to do without making a bigger mess than before. It was moments like this that she truly understood The Professor. The old goat had spent his time going back and fixing things that had gone wrong from his and others actions. She just hoped that this wouldn't be one of the things she would have to revisit to fix.

"Look, I'm sorry," came the words from Xander that broke her out of her internal observations. "I shouldn't have… I mean; we shouldn't have," he stumbled on the words.

Ace set her mug down and walked to him. She was a scant three feet from him when she spoke to him in a soft voice, her accent just lightly lilting, her mind pushing just a modicum as she talked, "It's okay, Xander. We both knew what we were doing."

"No, it's not that. Trust me, it isn't that. I know we both knew what we were doing… I mean you knew what you were doing," he stuttered and then tried to correct himself again. "We agreed on what was happening. It's just that I shouldn't have…" he ended with a strangled growl and his left palm ground into the eye patch and empty socket.

Ace reached out and gently touched his left arm which lowered itself with the contact. "What is this really about? You can talk to me about it."

"It's nothing… I shouldn't have gotten you involved with any of this," he sighed as he took a step back and Ace took a step forward.

"I was already involved in it, if you don't remember. It's kind of an obligation for me to stick my nose into things. The Professor would be disappointed if I didn't. So, what is this really about? I know you were crying." Ace's left hand gently grazed his right cheek, "You can tell me. It will help."

"It's nothing. Just some dust that got into my eye."

Ace shook her head. "Full environmental controls, no dust in here unless I want it, and guess what, I didn't want it in here."

Xander sighed as he took another step back from Ace. Her being close enough to touch was hard for him to resist. He knew that wasn't what she was going for, but he knew that she knew that. "I told you about Anya. I'm not over her. I know I left her at the altar, but I am still not over her death."

Ace took a step forward, "Close, but not it. What is the real reason?" she asked, her voice having more power in it. She hated having to do this to the man, but she had to get him to see himself before it got worse.

"Cor… Cordy… If it wasn't for me she wouldn't have gotten involved in all of this and she would have…"

Ace shook her head as her arms extended and he felt the terrycloth of the robe against his skin, her head against his scarred chest. "Closer still, but still not there."

"J-j-Jessie… I couldn't save him. I wasn't strong enough to save him!" Xander cried as he tried to turn from her enclosed arms.

Ace didn't let him go and began calming him as one would a child. "And you are almost there."

"NO!" screamed Xander trying to get free of her soft embrace and shutter his mind.

"One more door to open. One more realization and you will finally see yourself."

Xander was crying full out now, "Everyone would have been better if they had never met me."

Ace had a sad smile that expressed her distaste with having to do this to him. She had no choice. That she knew. And in this moment she knew what it must have felt like to the Doctor all those years ago when she found out about Fenric. She kissed him softly on the nose. "And you know THAT is a lie that you have always told yourself. You can see everything else; you need to see yourself of the first time."

Xander looked at her, and found both of her eyes drilling into his eye. She looked deep into his soul, and in turn showed him deep in hers. "You can forgive everyone else, Alexander Lavelle Harris, now you need to forgive yourself, or you will burn yourself out. You are the only one that has never taken time off. Even in Oxnard, you patrolled the cemeteries every night. You were not responsible for what happened to them. They made their own choices. You can not hold yourself accountable to things that you had no control over."

Xander's knees seemed to waiver in their ability to support him and Ace guided him down to the floor, where she cradled his head to her chest, and gently rocked him till his tears stopped flowing. She noticed when his breathing slowed into that of sleep, and replaced her body with a pillow from the bed, and slipped out of the bedroom to handle something else now that the most pressing and painful business was taken care of for now.


End file.
